Slow Cooker Sausage Tortellini

This one is super quick and easy.You can use your slow cooker without having it take all day. Perfect for when you have a few hours before dinner.

Ingredients

1lb Italian Sausage
1 lb package frozen Tortellini
2 cans Diced Tomatoes
8 oz Cream Cheese
1 Green Pepper, chopped

Instructions

1. Brown Sausage in skillet.
2. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and mix well.
3. Cover and cook on low for 3 1/2 hours stirring halfway through.
4. Uncover and stir. Cook uncovered for another 30 minutes.

Cheesy Italian Sausage Penne

This is one of my favorite dinners! I love just mixing the meat, pasta and veggies all in one dish. Shane asks me to make this all of the time. I make a lot of this even thought there is only two of us because we like to have extra for the next day. Normally, I only use Penne pasta for this one but as you can see in the picture I mixed in some Rotini this time. I wanted to use what I had in the pantry up. 

Ingredients

1 box Penne Pasta. 
1 lb Mild Italian Sausage
1 tsp Garlic, minced
1 Zucchini, sliced
1 Red Pepper, chopped
1 jar Pasta Sauce (any kind)
8 oz Velveeta, cubed

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. 
2. Cook pasta according to package instructions. 
3. In large skillet, brown sausage breaking up the sausage as you cook it. Drain. 
4. Return to heat adding the garlic, zucchini, red peppers, and pasta sauce. Cook until vegetables are tender. 
5. Drain pasta and add to sausage mixture. Lightly mix in Velveeta. 
6. Move to a lightly greased 13x9 baking dish and bake for 20 minutes. 

Featured Beer

While making this meal last night I also had a Unit 6 by Rivertown Brewing Company. It's an American Hefeweizen Ale. I must say I am a little disappointed. While the beer itself is good it is not your typical Hefeweizen. It is more of a plain wheat beer in my opinion. Hefeweizen beers are typically has hints of bananas and cloves giving them a distinct taste. This beer is lacking such flavor.